Inmate on SC’s death row for 37 years dies of natural causes

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Authorities say an inmate who had been on South Carolina’s death row for more than 37 years has died from a stroke.

Sixty-year-old Donald Allen Jones was convicted of killing a dairy owner in Lancaster he briefly worked for and raping his wife during a robbery in 1983.

Jones was the second-longest serving inmate on the state’s death row. Officials say 77-year-old Fred Singleton has been on death row five months longer for the 1982 rape and killing of a 73-year-old Newberry County woman.

Thirty-five inmates remain on South Carolina’s death row after Jones’ death.